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Career Development Award

The Career Development Award (CDA) provides research funding to clinical investigators, who have received their initial faculty appointment, as they work to establish an independent clinical cancer research program. This research must have a patient-oriented focus, including a clinical research study and/or translational research involving human subjects. Proposals with a predominant focus on in vitro or animal studies (even if clinically relevant) are not allowed.

The CDA is a three-year grant totaling $200,000 to pay for personnel and/or research expenses, and travel to attend the Conquer Cancer Grants and Awards Ceremony at the ASCO Annual Meeting. The number of CDA grants in each funding cycle is not predetermined by the Conquer Cancer Foundation. Awards are given based on individual merit and availability of funds.

The Foundation encourages applications in all areas.

**Please note that the deadline has been extended through 9/26/2018 at 11:59pm ET.

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following criteria to qualify for the Career Development Award:

Be a physician (MD, DO of international equivalent) working in any country.

Be in the first to third year of a full-time primary faculty appointment in a clinical department at an academic medical institution at the time of grant submission. Faculty appointment may begin with the entry-level faculty position within the applicant’s institution (i.e., Instructor/Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Assistant Member).

Have a valid, active medical license in the country where the research will be conducted at the time of application.

Have completed productive postdoctoral research and demonstrated the ability to undertake independent investigator-initiated clinical research.

Be an ASCO Member or have submitted a membership application with the grant application. To apply for membership, or to renew your existing membership, please visit http://www.asco.org/membership.

Be able to commit more than 50% of full-time effort in research (applies to total research, not just the proposed project) during the award period.

Have a mentor from the sponsoring institution who must provide a letter of support. If the mentor is not an ASCO Member, a supporting letter from an ASCO Member from the sponsoring institution must be included.

Eligible physicians are allowed to hold only one grant from the Conquer Cancer Foundation at a time.

Should not have any current career development awards (e.g., K23, K08, or any other type of career development award) and have not been a Principal Investigator on any large project grants (e.g., R01 or international equivalent, or private foundation grants). Past recipients of training fellowships (e.g., Young Investigator Award or an F32 grant) are eligible. Applicants with institutional KL2/K12 grants are eligible to apply, but will be asked to relinquish their institutional grant at the start of the CDA grant period. If there are questions regarding eligibility associated with previous and current grants received, applicants are encouraged to send an email to grants@conquer.org for clarification.

Be up-to-date and in compliance with all requirements (e.g., progress reports, final reports, budget summaries, IRB approvals, etc.) of any past grants received from the Conquer Cancer Foundation.

Would you like to improve your grant writing skills? Do you want to learn proven tips to increase your chances of getting funded? This section provides resources including videos from our Grant Writing Workshop and tips and guidelines from Conquer Cancer grant recipients

Conquerors in Action

In this video, Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, Professor at UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how receiving a Career Development Award (CDA) from the Conquer Cancer Foundation launched his career in immunotherapy research and led to a series of treatments that are “real options” for patients.

Recipients

The Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO Career Development Award was first awarded in 1992. To date, we have funded 267 clinical investigators across the globe totaling more than $49 million.

This grant receives support that may result in a report to the CMS Open Payments website under the Physician Payments Sunshine Act. The supporting companies are required to report the amount of the grant, the names of physicians who are awarded this grant, and the names of their institutions. This information may appear on the Open Payments website. Find out more information about the Sunshine Act and CMS Open Payments program.

Conquer Cancer Foundation

The Conquer Cancer Foundation® is registered in Virginia as a nonprofit corporation. The Conquer Cancer Foundation is a public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and the organization’s Federal Identification Number (EIN) is 31-1667995.

Conquer Cancer Foundation

The Conquer Cancer Foundation® is registered in Virginia as a nonprofit corporation. The Conquer Cancer Foundation is a public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and the organization’s Federal Identification Number (EIN) is 31-1667995.